We like leisurely brunches, lunches, dinners, dessert, cocktails, and everything in between.

This time of year, we like them best on a patio. It's not too hot, not too cold. The air is just right. So before this blog turns into ways to beat the freeze, enjoy metro Detroit at it's prime.

To satisfy our inner hipster, we head to the bosco on Woodward in Ferndale. While the bosco prides itself on a somewhat stand-offish obscurity (even the Woodward Ave. front door is easily missed), you don’t need a secret handshake to enter. A quick pass by the bar and lounge, pulsating with a dance mix, and through the glass doorwall will land you on the mellower, tree-adorned side of lounge life. Cool, post-modernist chairs and tables, and comfy, curved wooden benches add to the sleek vibe. If you could create a swanky lounge outside your back door, this is how it would look. While candles sprinkle the tables, part of the patio’s allure is the darkness. So grab a cocktail from the too-cool-to-smile bartender and take in the stylish scene.

-- Melinda Clynes, metromode

The heartbeat of Oakland County has its strongest pulse in downtown Pontiac, where art galleries, restaurants and music venues began to replace empty buildings and storefronts in the 1980s and 1990s.

Each Labor Day weekend since 1998, the Chrysler Arts, Beats & Eats festival has celebrated the quality of life in Oakland County by showcasing a variety of artists, musicians and food exhibits from the metro Detroit area. The festival was designed to provide family entertainment at a low cost, with free admission to the grounds and all concerts, and low prices for food and beverages.

Some of the featured musical entertainers include Blues Traveler, Rusted Root, the Hard Lessons, the Howling Diablos and the Twistin' Tarantulas. See a complete music schedule here.  

For more info on the art fair, check this out; and for food options, go here.

Proceeds from Chrysler Arts, Beats & Eats will be distributed among several key Metro-Detroit charities by the Arts, Beats & Eats Foundation. To date, over $2 million raised by Arts, Beats & Eats has been donated to charity.

For a map of the festival grounds in downtown Pontiac and directions, go here.

-- Walter Wasacz, FilterD

Downtown Mt. Clemens -- or The Clem as some call it for short -- has all of the hallmarks of a successful downtown -- entertainment venues, delicious dinning options and quirky shops.

The Clem has something for everyone, and we're not just saying that. There are over 30 bars and restaurants in the downtown district.

The bar scene is well documented: pub grub at McSorley's, John Barleycorn's and Your Mother's. Other night spots include Hayloft Liquor Stand, well-known known for live rock shows, Emerald Theatre, also a music scene staple, and Full Kilt, an Irish pub also featuring live music.

If you have not been to the downtown recently, however, there are some old favorites returned, and new places worth checking out, even in the daylight hours.

Fiesta Joe's is the first Mexican restaurant downtown and it opened last year. And Vi Bratto Cigar Shop, 65 Macomb Place, is designed to cater to those who enjoy a good cigar -- with a lounge, TVs and Internet access, plus a 135-square-foot humidor. Other newer places to stop include Wine Sync, recently reopened Gibbons Bakery -- a mainstay of The Clem we're glad to see back.

-- Jon Zemke, metromode

Looking for the latest and greatest electronic music from Detroit and beyond? Try Record Time, with one of the area's largest selections of records to make your beats all the more fresh, plus 12" singles and LPs that will flood the dancefloor at your next house party.

The shop at 27360 Gratiot Ave. in Roseville is the Portobello Road of jams. Naw, it’s the Eastern Market of jams. Open under the watchful eye of owner Mike Himes since 1983, it's also a cultural landmark.

Well worth the trip to the East Side if you're of the west of Woodward personage, Record Time is a safe haven to shop and shout and argue and test wares and take free sample spins on the in-store turntables like so many apple slices and orange quarters at a sonic farmer's market. It's also a place where stalwart and leading edge Detroit electronic music and classic Detroit Techno and can count on a launch pad, home and resting grounds. It is both conspiratorial and curatorial. Retail and artful. But mostly (and mostly on weekends) it's a bustling marketplace of sonic ideas being exchanged among both customers and creators alike. It's been the favored spot over the years to pick up new cuts by (and sometimes to spot in-person) artists as diverse as Derrick May and Kid Rock, Richie Hawtin and Insane Clown Posse. Many artists have celebrated the release of new records or otherwise just celebrated their music by playing in-stores among Record Times aisles of finds. You'll still find a good selection of the latest indie rock, dance music and electronic sounds from around town on offer alongside international and critically-acclaimed artists.

-- Chris Handyside, metromode

On a wonderful late-night every third Thursday of every month, the Detroit Institute of Arts showcases the wild and weird. And lots of the wild.

The venerable museum becomes the Marble Lounge and features eclectic music, dancing and a nightclub atmosphere. 

This month, it features Matmos, a Baltimore-based duo. The entire four-hour program will be filled up with as much of the group's loopy electronic fuzz as you can stand. Check out a bit of you can expect in this video interview.

But it doesn't touch on a few other strange details, like Matmos' microscopic abuse of source material as varied as electric guitars, freshly cut hair, the amplified neural activity of crayfish, and the human voice. Daniel and Schmidt, who recently moved from San Francisco to Baltimore (where Daniels took a teaching position at Johns Hopkins University) took their music in a "cosmic pop" electronic direction for 2008's The Supreme Balloon, which was made entirely using vintage synthesizers.

Marble Lounge is for those 18 and over. Tickets are $10 at the door. Enter off of John R Street. Cocktails and food will be available.

-- Walter Wasacz and FilterD